Micro Brewery Beers to help pull our country out of Recession?

hypervalve

BeerNut wrote: »

Irish drinkers (and publicans!) aren't really interested in beer. They're more interested in brands.

It's sad really but most people are happy with the same five mass produced approximations of beer that are on tap in every pub in the country. If we didn't have Guinness we'd have nothing going for us. We're just not cultured when it comes to beer.

I'd love to see micro-brewing become popular here. It's not going to pull the country out of recession but it would certainly help. And having good choice of beers in the pubs would be a bonus. There's definitely a gap in the market. Any budding entrepreneurs/beer lovers willing to give it a shot. I know of one course in Edinburgh:

http://www.postgraduate.hw.ac.uk/course/118/

BeerNut

hypervalve wrote: »

It's sad really but most people are happy with the same five mass produced approximations of beer that are on tap in every pub in the country.

Thing is, that's true in the US, in Britain and every other country where good beer is readily available and there are loads of small breweries. The expansion of microbrewed beers is not going to see the macros knocked off the bar or mass conversions from one to the other. The continued existence and popularity of Heineken is not a threat to Irish craft beer.

hypervalve wrote: »

I'd love to see micro-brewing become popular here.

You speak as though it's something that's not happening, but it is. It's real: over dozen breweries (four new ones in the last twelve months) and hundreds of stockists. The beer is out there to be drunk and the only way to make it more popular is to drink it and tell other people about it.

But we shouldn't expect to wake up one day and find someone else has turned every Miller tap into Galway Hooker.

hypervalve

BeerNut wrote: »

You speak as though it's something that's not happening, but it is. It's real: over dozen breweries (four new ones in the last twelve months)

Well I'm only really comparing it to the UK where almost every pub has a selection of local beer's on tap to choose from. I know it's not non existent here but it's nowhere near that scale.

BeerNut

hypervalve wrote: »

almost every pub has a selection of local beer's on tap to chose from.

I think a lot of this is just perception. The 2010 Cask Report has 51% of UK pubs carrying cask beer. Granted there'll be a proportion of local keg -- in the North in particular -- but there are quite a few national cask brands too. I doubt even half of the pubs in the UK carry a local beer.

Furthermore I don't think it's fair in this comparison to count beer from the large regionals as local, any more than you'd count Budweiser as a local beer in Kilkenny or Heineken as a local beer in Cork.

The small independent brewery scene in the UK isn't that different to what we have here.

hypervalve

BeerNut wrote: »

I think a lot of this is just perception. The The small independent brewery scene in the UK isn't that different to what we have here.

Ok I haven't researched it properly, I'm just going by what I've experienced my self through drinking in various English and Irish pubs in the last year or two.

So you're saying that there is a similar level of independent brewing (proportionally) in Ireland? That doesn't seem right to me just going on what I've experienced first hand myself.

BeerNut

hypervalve wrote: »

That doesn't seem right to me just going on what I've experienced first hand myself.

It depends on where you draw the lines. The UK has large old independent breweries like Marston's, Greene King, Wells & Young and Fuller's who distribute nationally. In Ireland Carlow and Whitewater are getting there, but they concentrate more in the off trade. So if independence is the criterion then yes, the UK is ahead of us, but for historical reasons. We can't roll back the clock and revive the big independent Irish breweries.

The UK's new small independents offer a much better comparison to Irish micros. In London, for instance, you have Meantime, Battersea, Saints & Sinners, Camden Town, The Kernel, Sambrooks, Redemption and Brodie's. Walk into a random pub and the chances are you will not find these local beers on tap. I would hazard that a lot of London beer drinkers have never even heard of them.

Pepe LeFrits

Is it purely a cultural thing that's preventing Irish microbreweries from developing a wider appeal in Ireland, or are there any governance issues as well? Or are there are genuine problems with Diageo & Heineken operating a cartel?

I'd genuinely love to know if either of the latter are factors.

BeerNut

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

are there any governance issues as well? Or are there are genuine problems with Diageo & Heineken operating a cartel?

I wouldn't say the Big Two have a cartel, but the barriers to entry for newcomers are huge. If you want to try and seriously compete with them, you need multinational money behind you. MolsonCoors and C&C (agents for A-B InBev) are having a go at it at the moment, but really the independent breweries are working to a different business model altogether.